Был ли Сталин пламенным революционером, или «Творческий ответ» вождя в ракурсе противостояния цивилизаций

Abstract

This publication is a fragment of a planned, extensive and not yet fully published study on the destiny of Russia as a unique civilization. The focus of the study is on the biographies of famous people whose activities have left a significant mark on the history of Russia, including politicians, scientists and artists. The book examines the biographies of F. Dostoevsky, M. Gorky, A. Solzhenitsyn, I. Stalin, L. Gumilev, A. Tarkovsky, and others. The fragment of the manuscript published in this issue of the journal examines the activities of Stalin. The peculiarity of Stalin's activity is usually associated exclusively with the history of revolution, collectivization, modernization, etc., i. e. it is considered within the boundaries of the national political history and the named processes. The attention of those writing about Stalin is entirely determined by the Russian revolution of 1917 as one of the most significant events of the twentieth century and its consequences that determine the construction of a new society and state. However, there is a need – and it arises precisely in the first decades of the 21st century – to try to understand the leader's activity at the level of the problem identified by S. Huntington in the title of one of his books, i. e. as “the clash of civilizations”. In other words, the leader's activity can be viewed not in the context of the history of the revolution and the history of the Soviet state with their inherent positive and negative manifestations, but in the context of history as the history of civilizations, i. e. in the paradigm set by historians such as, for example, A. Toynbee. The conclusions and conclusions made by the author in this article are not taken in order to divert from Stalin all the criticism against him that has taken place since the era of the thaw and the subsequent thaw – perestroika. But this does not negate the significance of the creative response given by the leader to those Challenges that could have been dramatic for Russian civilization at that time. However, by giving such a “creative response” at that time, the leader did not solve the questions for the rest of his life at all. That time has passed, and Russia is again facing Challenges. It is up to us to give new creative responses to them, and we would like them to be correct.